KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) saw its income and profit drop substantially in the first nine months of 2020 due to the Covid-19 fallout.
But effective cost containment efforts executed by the airport operator led to a sharp contraction in total costs by RM708.9 million, presumably preventing a larger top and bottomline loss.
For the nine months ended September 30 2020 (9M20), MAHB recorded a net loss of RM431.17 million from a net profit of RM507.53 million, while revenue shrank 58.65 per cent to RM1.60 billion from RM3.87 billion.
The prolonged impact from the Covid-19 pandemic had resulted in a 65.5 per cent drop in total passenger traffic year to date, MAHB said in a filing to Bursa Malaysia today.
However, MAHB said effective cost containment efforts executed by it had led to a sharp contraction in total costs by 31.5 per cent or RM708.9 million.
For the third quarter, MAHB posted a net loss of RM319.72 million from a net profit of RM197.87 million a year ago.
In an exchange filing today, the airport operator said this was mainly due to a 70.7 per cent drop in revenue at RM396.69 million from RM1.35 billion previously.
The lower revenue was due to the significant contraction in passenger movements of 74.8 per cent from the global impact of Covid-19 and prolonged Movement Control Order (MCO) period in Malaysia and other countries.
MAHB's Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (ISG) carried 34.7 per cent of the group's 36.2 million passengers in 9M20, attributed to the earlier opening of international borders at ISG in June.
The group said Malaysia's domestic traffic had gradually improved, recording passenger traffic of 4.2 times higher in September since the upliftment of inter-state travel ban in June, in line with the global trend of faster domestic recovery compared to international travel.
Its passenger traffic in local operations dropped 69.6 per cent to 23.7 million passengers in 9M20.
The Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) recorded a 72.9 per cent reduction of passenger traffic to 12.5 million passengers during 9M20, while other airports in Malaysia recorded an aggregate decline of 64.9 per cent to 11.2 million passengers.
ISG traffic saw a much lesser decline of 53.5 per cent, with 12.6 million passenger movements during 9M20.
MAHB said ISG showed continuing signs of recovery momentum with strong demand for both domestic and international air travel. This was reflected in the robust passenger load factors recording above 70 per cent since August.
Apart from the initial recovery in domestic air travel, MAHB said other catalytic factors to spur traffic recovery includes the gradual reopening of international borders, especially for countries within Asia Pacific.
"Some countries have already begun discussions to synchronise the screening and quarantine processes. This approach is expected to have spill over effects to domestic air travel while improving international sector movements," said MAHB in a separate statement.
The group said it would continue to pursue new initiatives in broadening its income base.
Earlier this month, MAHB together with its partner, Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, the logistics arm for Alibaba Group, had commenced the operations of the Cainiao Aeropolis eWTP Hub.
Group chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh said it was committed to making Malaysia as a cargo distribution hub within the Asean region.
"With the growth in cargo volumes, we are looking at improved airline connectivity via KLIA with new routes and increase in flight frequencies, belly space utilisation and freighter capacity. We hope to double the current cargo volumes to 1.4 million tonnes in the next 10 years," he added.